Day by Day with Martin Luther

Read: Leviticus 6:1-7:27 Mark 3:7-30 Proverbs 10:3-4

“The Devil’s Nature”

“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
[1st John 2:1]

And this is the devil’s nature and true color by which he should be recognized; he is such a wicked spirit that he can make great sins seem so small that they will not be seen; and on the other hand, he can make small sins great, so that someone gnaws at, torments, and kills himself over them. Therefore, a Christian ought to learn not to let his conscience be easily troubled. But if he believes in Christ and desires to be righteous, if he contends against sin as much as he can, he does not allow such stumbling to destroy his good conscience. Instead he says; “may this wrongdoing and stumbling depart from me along with the other infirmities and sins that I must include in the article of the Creed; “I believe in the forgiveness of sins” and the Fifth Petition of the Our Father, “forgive us our trespasses.”